Fancy Beasts by Alex Lemon
In Fancy Beasts, the author of Hallelujah Blackout and Mosquito takes on California, the 2008 election, plastic surgery, Larry Craig, wildfires, Wal-Mart, and rampant commercialism -- in short, the modern American media culture, which provides obscene foil for his personal legacies of violence and violation. This pivotal book captures the turning point in a life of abuse, in which the recovering victim/perpetrator puzzles through the paradigm of son-to-husband-to-father. Frenetic, hilarious, and fearless, these poems are a workout -- vigorous and raw. Yet they are also composed and controlled, pared down and sculpted, with a disarming narrative simplicity and directness. Even when dealing with toxic content, the point of view is always genuine and trustworthy. This stunning achievement marks Alex Lemon's best work yet.
"A master of negative empathy, Lemon spelunks through the brain's darker convolutions and clearly enjoys testing the reader's limits--Library Journal, starred review "Full of raw energy, up-to-date in its slang and its jump cuts, effervescent with the playfulness and sometimes the angers of youth, the third collection from Lemon conveys a likable, outsized personality." --Publishers Weekly "Life cleverly and joyfully rages in Alex Lemon's poems."--Major Jackson "Alex Lemon dazzles us with his ability to slice straight through nerve and marrow on his way to the heart and mind of the matter."--Tracy K. Smith "Fancy Beasts is a terrific book by one of the best younger poets at work today."--Kevin Prufer "This book will likely appeal most to twenty-somethings with an emo/hipster bent, but even older readers will be impressed by Lemon's calculated audacity."--Library Journal (starred review) "Full of raw energy, up-to-date in its slang and its jump cuts, effervescent with the playfulness and sometimes the angers of youth, the third collection from Lemon (Hallelujah Blackout) conveys a likable, outsized personality; it should also work well in tandem with the Texas-based poet's forthcoming memoir, Happy (Scribner, 2010). Like Tony Hoagland, Lemon is often self-conscious about the volatilities his poems convey, about their almost giddy tonalities, but he will not apologize for himself: adult life is a scary gift, a fast trip, a set of close encounters with 'this fizzing pier life.'"--Publishers Weekly
Alex Lemon is the author of Happy: A Memoir, Feverland: A Memoir in Shards, and the poetry collections Mosquito, Hallelujah Blackout, Fancy Beasts, and The Wish Book, as well as the poetry collections Mosquito, Hallelujah Blackout, Fancy Beasts, and The Wish Book. Esquire, The Best American Poetry 2008, AGNI, Gulf Coast, the Kenyon Review, and Tin House, among others, have published his work. He has received a Poetry Literary Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and he routinely publishes and reviews for a variety of media sites. He teaches at Texas Christian University and lives in Fort Worth with his wife and two children.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781571314437 |
| Title | Fancy Beasts |
| Author | Alex Lemon |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Milkweed Editions |
| Year published | 2010-04-29 |
| Number of pages | 96 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |